Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Maybe something will change if I mention it here?

We've been without hot water for about a month now - and I'M SO FUCKING SICK OF IT.

In any other place I've lived around here, they give you a warning when they are about to turn the hot water off, and it never lasts more than three weeks, and you always know when, approximately, the water is going to be back.

In Pushcha Vodytsya, we've been told that they do not turn the hot water off AT ALL here, and they weren't lying to us. What happened is some pipe burst, and there was no one to fix it right away, and then they were looking for the money to fix it, and now I have no idea what else they are waiting for. Not all buildings have been affected - but we live in the unlucky one. A sign on the door says they'll let us know when the water's going to be back - no date is specified, which probably means it can last till New Year's or something.

It's like hospitals here: very poor or comparatively not poor, everyone's in the same shit together at some point, the true equality. Our next-door neighbor has a nice car, but he's in the same hot-waterless shit as the janitor woman and her retarded kids upstairs, who can't afford to buy a kilo of cucumbers in addition to a few kilos of potato.

Me, I can't give Marta a bath for the third day in a row - because by the time I've boiled enough water in the electric kettle - we need five kettles, at least - she's too tired and screaming for me to help her fall asleep, to be her pillow and her pacifier - and I can't ignore those screams.

***

Here're some local benches - very calming to look at them, somehow:





4 comments:

  1. Yes , Very nice benches and rugs too. Raise hell with them. You got the garbage taken away. Try it for some hot water. Someone has to be in charge. I have faith in you..

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  2. Here's to benches!

    I don't think I've mentioned this here before, but I've got a special place in my heart for bus stops. Especialy the ones out in the selo.

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  3. Veronichka,
    unfortunately, the only means to fight hot water turn-offs known to the mankind is a personal boiler. I'm afraid the rich guy with the car has one and that's why no one will ever bang on anyone's head to replace the pipe. Unless, of course, it bursts right in the middle of the presidential sanatorium.
    Sasha

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  4. Thank you for these comforting benches. I think they're a good reminder of what's real and worth paying attention to. As it occurred to me, I know precisely how those planks feel to my hands and back, when I'm tired or turned sideways to my companion. And how the asphalt and grass next to them feel on my fingers when I'm all of a meter tall. I've never seen these benches before, and yet they're such a powerful point of contact to my life. In very nice colors, too.

    Good luck with the water.

    Another Misha

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